knife

Chapter 244: Parting

A beautiful female leopard was dragging a wild boar, walking with some difficulty and a few unsteady steps. The wild boar was very large, weighing at least three or four hundred pounds. Having finally caught the boar, she wanted to drag her prey up a tree as soon as possible, otherwise the smell of blood would soon attract large insects and other ferocious beasts, and if things went wrong, she would become a hired hand leopard.

Suddenly, the leopard stopped, released its sharp teeth from the wild boar's neck, pricked up its ears, lowered its upper body, and made a growling sound in its throat. It keenly sensed the danger, but for a moment it could not determine where the danger came from.

Suddenly, the leopard looked down at its feet.

The ground is shaking!
With a leap, the leopard soared more than ten feet away, yet it was reluctant to leave. The wild boar, weighing several hundred pounds, was still in the same spot. With this prey, it could play happily for the next ten days or so without worrying about food.

only……

The leopard took several steps back.

The perfectly good land was suddenly lifted up, revealing a large, dark hole in the ground, and then a head poked out from inside.

This is a dangerous two-legged creature.

Without hesitation, the leopard turned around and leaped into the bushes in a few swift movements. Its beautiful fur disappeared in the rising sun, vanishing without a trace.

Gao Wuyang leaped out of the cave, and the first thing he saw was a large wild boar that wasn't quite dead yet, lying there grunting and groaning.

"Wow!" Gao Wuyang squatted down, glanced at the wild boar's wound, and was both surprised and delighted. This was a good omen. After a fierce battle all night, they came out of the cave and found a big wild boar for free. Everyone's breakfast was sorted.

After Gao Wuyang, Zhou Huan also emerged, followed by dozens more people. Only after these people dispersed on the perimeter and set up a simple defensive circle did Tiele emerge from the inside. Zhou Yi naturally brought up the rear.

As Zhou Yi crawled out of the hole, the Tiele watched helplessly as the tunnel that had just allowed them to escape from Yandu collapsed.

"How many years have you been digging?" he asked Zhou Yi.

“This tunnel leading out of the city took about two years to dig!” Zhou Yi clapped his hands and said.

"Isn't it a pity?"

“What’s there to regret!” Zhou Yi laughed. “It has already completed its mission. Leaving it behind would only leave future troubles. It should retire gracefully. Now that the cave has collapsed, Akdun will never know how we escaped, no matter how hard he tries. Let him be suspicious of Wutu! Second Prince, sometimes, the simpler the scheme to sow discord, the harder it is to crack. You should be good at this, right?”

Tiele nodded. Li Dachui's men were all tough guys. He wondered where Li Dachui had recruited them. They were so devoted to working for him that it was truly enviable.

Looking at Zhou Yi, he couldn't help but think of Luch and Gro, and felt a pang of pain in his heart.

Those two were his right-hand men, yet they died needlessly at the hands of Li Dachui and Xiao Changche.

If those two people were still here, I wouldn't be in this desperate situation today, with no one to rely on.

"That traitor Wutu, one day I'll skin him alive!"

“Your Highness, your first priority now is to immediately join forces with Yeli and then swiftly attack Yandu!” Zhou Yi said. “Yandu has 30,000 garrison troops, but Yandu is currently in chaos, and they are unable to form a fighting force in the short term. If we do not take Yandu as soon as possible, I am afraid it will be difficult to follow up! We must strike while the iron is hot!”

Tiele took a deep breath: "Headmaster Zhou, how many men can you mobilize in Yandu City? Can you help me take Yandu from within and without? If you can, I will give you the reward you want! You can name your price, I won't haggle!"

Zhou Yi shrugged, somewhat helplessly, and said, "Your Highness, you saw the fierce battle last night. My men suffered heavy casualties, leaving only a handful of survivors. What can they possibly accomplish? I've already ordered those who are still alive to evacuate Yandu. They should find their own way out of Yandu and hide until things calm down, then return to the borderlands. As for those who haven't been exposed yet, I'm sorry, Your Highness, they can't help you. You'll have to rely on yourself!"

Tiele nodded: "Why did Li Dachui save me?"

“Because he’s your cousin!” Zhou Yi said. “Relatives are still relatives, even if the bones are broken, they’re still connected. How could our young master just stand by and watch his aunt have no son?”

Tiele stared at Zhou Yi: "Headmaster Zhou, you can insult me ​​as a person, but you can't insult my intelligence!"

Zhou Yi spread his hands, somewhat helplessly: "That's what the young master said. I don't know if you believe it or not, but I do. Second Prince, we'll part ways here. I wish you all your dreams come true and that you will ascend the throne of the Great Yuan Emperor. When that time comes, I will come to Yandu to congratulate you!"

"Aren't you afraid that I'll lead a million-strong army to invade the lands beyond the Great Wall?"

"You should sort out this mess first!" Zhou Yi laughed heartily. "A mere profit probably won't bring you any satisfaction!"

The two men stared at each other like fighting cocks for a long time, then bowed to each other. Tiele then led his remaining five or six men and ran wildly eastward.

"Dean Zhou, what do we do next?" Gao Wuyang kicked the wild boar and asked.

"Let's roast this wild boar first!" Zhou Yi laughed. "After we've eaten and drunk our fill, I'll take you to see the Eagle Bandits. You can follow them for a year or two."

Gao Wuyang's eyes lit up: "You mean I don't have to stay in Yandu City as a small grocery store owner anymore?"

"Can I stop selling mutton pies?" Zhou Huan chimed in.

"For the next few years, you can enjoy yourselves with Guan Shan!" Zhou Yi said. "If everything goes according to your plan, Young Master, Northern Yuan should enter an era of chaotic warfare. The princes will definitely fight each other to the death. Who is best suited to develop in a chaotic Northern Yuan? Of course, it's thieves! Eagle bandits need to develop rapidly in the next few years and become a significant force in Northern Yuan. One day, we will launch a northern expedition." "Brilliant!" Gao Wuyang said excitedly. "But Dean Zhou, it's a bit of a pity that we're abandoning our foundation in Yandu with this departure!"

"What? You think the Chi Qiu Institute only has you guys? The Black Ice Guard has another death squad system outside the Great Wall, but our Chi Qiu Institute doesn't?"

"Alright, Dean Zhou, you'd better stop tempting me. You're just making me feel uncomfortable by arousing my cravings without saying anything!" Gao Wuyang said, drawing his knife, "Let's roast the pig first."

"Your knife is stained with too much human blood. Don't you have any clean ones?" Zhou Yi looked at the dark red blade of the saber with disdain.

"When did you become so pretentious?" Gao Wuyang laughed and brandished his knife, dissecting a wild boar weighing several hundred pounds in a short time, separating the skin, meat, bones, and internal organs into separate piles.

"Let's do it!" Gao Wuyang waved his hand, and a group of people rushed up and took away pieces of wild boar meat that were cut into neat squares from the ground.

As the sun rises high in the sky, the wisps of smoke from the chimneys have already been blown away by the wind, but there is no one left to be seen.

The escaped leopard crept back, first peeking its head out from the bushes and observing for a while before stealthily emerging.

Its wild boar is gone.

All that remained on the ground were some scattered bones and a tough wild boar hide.

The leopard roared to the sky, and when it lowered its head, tears welled up in its eyes.

We finally managed to catch this big wild boar, but these two-legged creatures left it nothing!

As expected, all two-legged creatures are no good!

Outside the eastern city, tens of thousands of heavily armed soldiers were arrayed in a dense military formation. Countless siege ladders, battering rams, and catapults were being deployed one by one. Below the city, countless cavalrymen galloped back and forth, even brazenly running to within an arrow's throw of the city wall, hurling insults and shouting at those on the wall.

More than 20,000 troops from the Eastern Camp were mobilized.

Beneath the central banner, the white-haired veteran Yeli appeared unmoved, but deep down he was anxious and restless.

Last night, before the Tiele entered the palace, an order came in, instructing him to organize his troops and enter the city through the east gate.

But now that he has arrived, Dongdaemun is tightly shut.

Even though he made a show of attacking the city, the people on the city walls remained unmoved.

Yeli already knew something was wrong. Now that this show of force had been set up, the lack of any reaction within the city could only mean one thing: His Majesty was no longer with him.

But what about Prince Tiele? Is he alive or dead?
He should still be alive, and has not yet fallen into Akdun's hands.

Otherwise, Akdun would have already brought the Tiele people, or even their heads, to the east gate to persuade him to surrender.

But if the Second Prince is trapped in Yandu, how can he escape from this dangerous place?

Yeli is caught in a dilemma!

Should we fight or not?
If the Tiele were to die and he were to fight on his own, that would definitely be considered treason!

Moreover, it's hard to say what the attitudes of the South Camp and the North Camp are. I've set up a battle formation here, but they haven't reacted at all.

The less they react, the more uneasy they become.

As time went on, Yeli grew increasingly anxious.

In the distance, the sound of hooves rang out, and a troop of cavalry galloped towards them.

"His Highness is here! His Highness is here!" A scout frantically spurred his horse towards the central army banner: "General, the Second Prince has arrived!"

Yeli watched the approaching cavalry troop and saw the familiar figure at the head of it, and he breathed a long sigh of relief.

The Second Prince is still the Second Prince; even in this situation, he can still escape and return.

He mounted his horse and went straight to meet them.

The Tiele banner slowly rose into the sky, greatly boosting the morale of the soldiers below the city. Shouts of "Long live the Emperor!" reverberated throughout the city. On the east gate tower, Wutu clenched his fists tightly, looking at the army outside, his heart filled with mixed emotions.

(End of this chapter)